MADISON – Barry Alvarez needed little prodding to recall how 16 summers earlier he became fixated on a freshman defensive back, a walk-on who stood just 5-foot-8 and weighed just 174 pounds.

Alvarez was preparing for his 12th season as Wisconsin’s head coach.

His secondary coach was Ron Lee.

The player who caught the eye of Alvarez in camp was Jim Leonhard, who grew up in Tony and was an all-state performer at Flambeau High School.

Leonhard’s time on the scout team was brief.

“As I told Ron Lee,” Alvarez recalled, “when you watch practice, he is around too many balls. He is breaking up balls. He is intercepting balls. If it is tipped, he gets it. He is just around the ball too much.

After playing on special teams in all 12 games as a freshman, Leonhard started at safety in his final 39 games and was a three-time All-American. He tied UW’s program mark for interceptions (21), finished with 50 passes defended and became one of the best punt-return men in the history of the Big Ten.

Then after going undrafted in 2005, Leonhard played 10 seasons in the NFL, for six teams. He started 73 games and played in 142.

“He studied the game,” Alvarez said. “He is as smart as any secondary player we’ve ever had. You look at every place he ever went in the NFL. He could get everyone lined up.”

Leonhard, 34, is in the midst of another rise, this time up the coaching ranks.

Leonhard retired from the NFL after the 2014 season, joined the UW staff in 2015 after secondary coach Daronte’ Jones left for the NFL and was named defensive coordinator in February to replace Justin Wilcox, who left UW after one season to take over the California program.

Jim Leonhard returns an interception against the Cincinnati Bengals while playing for the Baltimore Ravens in 2008.(Photo: Associated Press)

His final game in the NFL was Dec. 28, 2014, for the Cleveland Browns. His first game as a college coach was Sept. 3, 2016. His first game as UW’s defensive coordinator is set for Friday night, when Utah State visits Camp Randall Stadium.

Leonhard insists this rise hasn’t gone according to plan because, quite frankly, there was no plan.

“Two years ago I was at home,” he said, laughing. “Mentally I needed a break from football. Was very excited to be back in Madison.

“Madison was going to be home and I was going to figure out what I wanted to do from there.

“Coaching was always a strong possibility. I decided to go with it a year ago, and obviously things changed pretty dramatically again this past season. …

“But it was never the plan, never the goal. I didn’t have that list of this is where I plan to be in two years, three years or four years.”

“That is very important to me,” said Leonhard, who is married and has two young boys. “It is going to be a huge time commitment and it is time away from them. That was the evaluation process on my side.

“My family is No. 1 in my book. Now I am dad to a lot of guys essentially. …

“The football side – the coaching, feeling comfortable with the responsibilities that I have – I was very comfortable with that early.”

Leonhard no doubt will be working under a microscope this season because of the success of UW’s defenses under Dave Aranda (2013-’15) and Wilcox last season.
In the last four seasons, UW has allowed foes an average of 16.6 points per game. That is the No. 2 mark nationally behind only Alabama.

“I think Jimmy Leonhard is one of the more interesting guys in the country this year,” ESPN.com writer Adam Rittenberg said. “He is such an unknown.

“That is a big question mark that a lot of people have.”

The question facing Leonhard in 2016 was whether he was ready to coach UW’s secondary.

Despite having to replace both starting safeties and a multiyear starter at cornerback, the unit made more big plays than it had the previous season.

Wisconsin corner back Derrick Tindal (left) and safety D'Cota Dixon (foreground) are among UW's top defenders back this season.(Photo: Andy Manis / For the Journal Sentinel)

Sixteen of UW’s 24 interceptions were recorded by the secondary – five by safety Leo Musso, four by safety D’Cota Dixon, four by cornerback Sojourn Shelton and three by cornerback Derrick Tindal.

Musso and Dixon excelled as first-year starters; Shelton and Tindal played their best football at UW.

The players raved – before the season – about Leonhard’s ability to break down techniques and schemes and teach them concisely.

Alvarez heard that from his grandson, reserve safety Joe Ferguson.

“My grandson said that you’re sitting in a meeting for two hours and you think you’re in there for 15 minutes,” Alvarez said. “He holds kids’ attention. He gives them good knowledge. He is intense. The kids ate it up.”

How Leonhard prefers to deploy personnel against specific schemes, how often he blitzes and from where remain unclear.

Aranda was considered an aggressive play-caller and was creative in finding ways to free linebackers on blitzes. Wilcox was more vanilla, but the results in his lone season at UW were equally impressive.

“That secondary played well last year but this is another level,” said Tom Dienhart, senior writer for BTN.com. “Can you really coordinate a defense? Nobody really knows for sure, so the jury is still out and I think that is something people are going to keep an eye on to see if Leonhard is indeed ready to be a coordinator and the guy to push the buttons on that defense to keep it excellent.”

Early during his three-year run as coach at Pittsburgh (2012-’14), Chryst tried to persuade Leonhard to retire early and jump into coaching. Today he sees a bright young coach who won’t be overwhelmed and won’t be changed by his rapid rise.

Twice while he was head coach at Pittsburgh, Paul Chryst tried to talk Jim Leonhard into retiring from the NFL to become a coach.(Photo: Journal Sentinel Files)

“The misnomer with the coordinator is that it’s all scheme and it’s all his deal,” Chryst said. “That’s not how we do it…

“We’ve got a really good staff. I’d like to think we have pretty good dialogue amongst them. What’s different is some of his responsibilities. But one of the things I love about Jimmy is that he’ll still do it his way, his personality.

“Our players know what to expect. Jim doesn’t have to do this by himself. He’s got a ton of help and yet he is very capable.”

When Leonhard interacts with his players on the sideline during games he does so calmly. His voice doesn’t rise and his body language suggests a coach who remains poised no matter the situation.

When he interacts with players and fellow coaches before practice, Leonhard looks more like a senior defensive back than a second-year coach with a 10-year NFL résumé.

“I’m not going to micromanage the coaches,” Leonhard said. “I am going to let them coach and let them teach it the right way and step in when I have to.

“To me, that is the right way to be successful. I don’t want to be the dictator. I don’t see that as a successful way for me to coach.”

Lee Barfknecht, a longtime columnist for the Omaha World-Herald who has studied UW’s program closely since Nebraska joined the Big Ten in 2011, was impressed by the job Leonhard did as a rookie secondary coach. He sees Leonhard enjoying similar success in his new role.

“He knows the coaches,” Barfknecht said. “He knows the personnel. And it just seems like he is one of those guys in the business who has the ‘it’ factor. He really made such a huge impression in his first year on the staff.

“Yes, technically if you look at his biography, he has been a college coach for one year. But it seems like from his base of experience and what he brings from his personality, he just seems like a far more veteran coach.

“We won’t know until we see what happens on the field. But in that regard, if I was a Wisconsin fan I wouldn’t be shaking in my boots.”